| Dr.
Ikujiro Nonaka on Dialectic Leadership
HONOLULU—Creativity and efficiency, globalization and localization,
autonomy and control. Businesses often face contradictory goals
that seem to turn in upon themselves in a paradox of challenges.
While not claiming to have the complete answer to such a problem,
Dr. Ikujiro Nonaka, one of the world’s leading authority
on knowledge management, certainly presented a thought-provoking
hypothesis at a recent JAIMS open house.
A select group of local executives and business
leaders attended the July 17 session and listened to Nonaka expound
on “Dialectic
Leadership.”
The dialectic approach requires a leader to recognize
the multifaceted and contradictory nature of certain truths. There
needs to be a
synthesis, Nonaka says, to innovatively combine diverse contradictory
knowledge and create higher states of knowledge and skills.
Nonaka cited Canon, IBM, and the U.S. Marines as
examples of dialectic organizations whose success is due
in part to their synthesis of opposing traits: discipline and creativity,
careful analysis
and quick action, well-defined plans and improvisation.
Nonaka pointed to one man in particular who exemplifies
the dialectic leader: Tetsuya Goto. Through his humble leadership,
Goto was able
to boost the success of his inn by following what seemed to be
a contradictory line of action by aiding his fellow innkeepers
in Kurokawa. In doing so, he has made the Kurokawa area renowned
for its natural hot springs. He now travels throughout Japan sharing
his knowledge on managing natural environments.
After the one-hour session, audience members were
able to pose further questions and thoughts to Nonaka over an informal
lunch.
Ikujiro Nonaka is a professor at the Graduate School
of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University
in Tokyo and former
Xerox Professor of Knowledge at the Haas School of Business, UC
Berkeley. He is also the founding dean of the Graduate School of
Knowledge Science at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
Nonaka is the visiting dean and professor at the Center for Knowledge
and Innovation Research, Helsinki School of Economics and Business
Administration and has long been one of Japan’s foremost
authorities on developing and using the intellectual capital of
workers to create and expand business knowledge. |
